My Pasteurella Journey : Illnesses, Injuries and Parasites

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This is a list of threads created over the course of 2-3 months, chronicling our initial brush with a Pasteurella Multocida infection, or "Snuffles" as it sometimes can be called. Hopefully, this will be of help to others experiencing this.

Diamond wrote:What an intense, and disheartening, experience to go through.

I have been researching antibiotic use in rabbits due to a chronic eye problem with one of my does. Most signs point to pasteurella being a culprit - although none of my rabbits have had the 'snuffles', the pasteurella bacteria seem to be a common factor with respiratory and sinus problems.

I read a few studies on long-term bicillin use to treat pasteruella abscesses and am willingly experimenting on my afflicted doe, giving her a 0.25 cc SQ injection every other day. We've been at this for a week now and it is hard to tell if there is any actual improvement, all I can say is that she has not gotten worse. But I lost a lot of time with medicated eye drops, trying to treat the problem topically when it was most likely systemic.

The voice in the back of my head tells me I should cull her, but I want to see if the condition is treatable - there is really nothing to lose at this point.

And if pasteurella does respond to bicillin treatment, it would be worth a try once isolation has been established.

But it does seem that this bacteria 'hangs out' in an average environment, much like staph and e. coli live on our bodies, so the argument for culling afflicted rabbits is very strong - mother Nature does not favor the weak, and those who are not able to thrive should not reproduce.

If you try with a "cillin" type antibiotic, make sure to use the injectable kind and also give probiotics, since "cillins" kill off the good bacteria in the gut as well. I wish you luck, please keep the rabbit quarantined and let us know what happens.

__________ Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:39 pm __________

Maxine wrote:I'm so sorry you had to go through this ordeal.

I haven't wanted to read this thread because I irrationally fear that if I did then my rabbits would come down with it. Superstitious. My doe, Ginger has a bit of a scabby nose and she has always seemed skitterish and doesn't eat or drink as well as my other two rabbits. Now I am worried she has pasteurella. I guess I will get some gloves and go inspect her paws.

Thank you so much for posting all this together. Were you able to keep any of the offspring for breeders?

NO...they all came down with it, over the course of 3 long, heartbreaking months.